Reading Room: A Year of Literary Curiosities

365 eclectic extracts and illustrations carefully selected to inform, surprise, amuse and inspire, this is a quirky showcase of the best and most unusual items in the British Library’s collection, seasonally arranged and beautifully designed. The extracts have been selected by popular BBC radio broadcaster and author Ian Sansom. 

Selected to challenge and inform the reader, each excerpt is accompanied by the unique shelfmark number of the source publication, encouraging readers to delve into the Library’s collections, only to resurface in an entirely different place, with a wholly different book. The Reading Room makes space for the sometimes-overlooked joy of interacting with a book, and each day brings a new one to discover —perhaps an author one hasn’t encountered, or simply a new perspective.

Collecting popular authors alongside controversial and thought-provoking writers – and encompassing a wide range of outstanding works in literature, poetry, essays, letters, and historical and scientific treatises – each extract will encourage enquiry and stimulate the imagination. Beautifully designed and illustrated throughout with imagery from the Library’s collections, this beguiling book presents one extract for every day of the year. It can be read as a thought to start the day or dipped into for inspiration at random.

Extracts include works by George Orwell, Joe Brainard, Emmeline Pankhurst, Barbara Kingsolver, Sigmund Freud, Betty Friedan, E.M. Forster, Bertrand Russell, Virginia Woolf, and Muriel Spark.

Hardback, pub 2020